For several years now,
Doug Ross has presented his Fabulous 50 Blog Awards recognizing blogs
and websites “which have worked tirelessly to promote conservatism, free market
capitalism, fiscal sanity, the sovereignty of the individual and otherwise
protect America from the cockroach-like Statists.”

As is the case every
year, your humble hobbit has somehow been overlooked. Perhaps it can be traced to the fact that I
lack literary flair, a charming attitude or animal magnetism to the opposite
gender. Whatever the reason, there are
still those who regard my work as worthy of a modicum of praise.

Doug Hagan,
proprietor of The Daley Gator, put a
smile on my face when he honored me with “The 50 Blogs You Must Follow In 2015.”Doug praised this
blog saying it was “one of a kind.” He
made my day, my month, hell, even my year.

They say humility is
divine. I’m in pretty good company in
Doug’s list. I will try to be
humble. Thank you Doug and thanks to
everyone for their readership. I hope
you will continue to stop by in the coming year.

Sunday, December 28, 2014

I watched with great interest the interview on CBS’s Face the Nation
this morning as Chief White House Correspondent, Major Garrett, was sitting in
for Bob Schieffer.

Garrett began the
interview with former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani by saying, “Let’s clear one thing
up. You said a while ago that President
Obama contributed to a rhetorical atmosphere about hating American police and The Washington Post fact-checked you on that. I cover the president every single
day. I’ve never detected anything that comes
along the line of propaganda urging the country to hate police. Do you want to recast that or take that back?”

Giuliani said, “Oh,
not at all. I think you missed one very
important point.”

Watch as he
eviscerates the Rev. Al Sharpton and his association with The World’s Most
Dangerous Community Organizer and current mayor Bill de Blasio.

The Panthers went two full months, from October 6 to December
6, without a win. Today, the 6-8-1 “Angry Kitties” clash with the 6-9 Falcons
in the Georgia Dome at 4:25 PM ET. The
game is airing on CBS.

This is a “must win” for Carolina
or they can kiss the post-season goodbye.

Running back DeAngelo Williams is
slated to start today after being benched with a broken bone in his right hand
which he suffered in the Cats’ loss to the Vikings on November 30th.

For Carolina to win today, they’ve got to stop Atlanta’s Pro Bowl
receiver Julio Jones who can be a nightmare to defend. If Carolina fails, it’s going to be a long
day.

The oddsmakers put the Panthers
as 4-point underdogs. They are fighting
for the last remaining playoff spot in the NFC.
I hope Coach Rivera has the good sense to put in backup quarterback
Derek Anderson if Newton isn’t getting the job done.

And because no football post
would be complete without some pom-poms, please enjoy these Top Cats in their
Santa outfits.

Saturday, December 27, 2014

FULL TRANSCRIPT OF
NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER’S EULOGY FOR OFFICER RAFAEL RAMOS

Every time I attend a
cop's funeral, I pray that it will be the last.
But I know it won't. As I watch
the casket carried past all those salutes, I wish it weren't real. But it is.
And as I look into the faces of the loved ones left behind—whose worst
fear has been so suddenly realized—I silently hope, "never again." But here we are.

My first police
funeral was 44 years ago. On
September 24, 1970, Boston Police Department Patrolman Walter Schroeder was
ambushed by a violent group of anti-war extremists, shot in the back as he
responded to a bank holdup.

In 1970 Boston, like
America, was a tumultuous place: protests for civil rights, anti-war
demonstrations, anti-government
demonstrations; anti-police demonstrations. Divisive politics polarized the city and the
country.

Maybe that sounds
familiar. The murder of Officer
Schroeder shook the foundations of City Hall and the Boston Police Department. It sowed doubt and fear among officers and
citizens alike.We mourned, we vowed never to forget, and we
moved forward. And here we are. Here we are to celebrate the life of Police Officer
Rafael Ramos, and to honor him. To memorialize the sacrifice he made with his
partner that day—with his partner for all time—Officer Wenjian Liu.

Here we are to
remember. We remember what it means to
take "the Job." No other
profession will give you as much, or sometimes, take as much. The job can reward you like no other, but one
day it might demand from you everything in return. For the Ramos family today is that day. And
here we are.

We're in a city
struggling to define itself, where people are searching for what they stand for
and why, where people claim to know best what it's like to be everybody else. But we know who we are, because we know who
Rafael Ramos was. He was a father, a son, a brother, and a husband. He was a New Yorker. He was a New York
City Police Officer. And he was—he is—a
hero.

His sister, Sindy,
told me that because his dad died when he was an infant, he took on the
father-figure role for the family as he grew.
Cops who served with him said you could see that in the way he worked.

Justin, Jayden—you
got the chance to know your dad, the way he didn't get to know his. You got to
learn from him, the way he taught others.
Your aunt said your dad knew a little bit of everything, and he was
willing to let you know it. Your mom
said he was the type of man who, if he set his mind on something, he went for
it and did it. Other cops said the same
thing: he came on the job older, a family man, street smart. He knew how to
handle people, and the younger guys looked up to him.He never shirked a task and he never complained.You should be so proud of him, as we all are.

But over the last
week, you've seen that the memorials and this funeral have been about more than
just your dad. I know how strange it is. So comforting on the one hand, to have the
whole Department in mourning with you, to feel that solidarity, to know that we
will never let you be alone again, that we are your family now, just as we were
your dad's. But a burden, too, having
something so private for you be so public at the same time. Because here we
are.

We're here because
your dad was assassinated.That's a different
word than murdered, which is awful enough.
It speaks of the prominence of the person killed; it makes the crime
intentional and symbolic. Your dad was assassinated because he represented
something—and that's true, he did. He represented the
men and women of the New York City Police Department. He was the embodiment of our motto: "fidelis ad
mortem," "faithful unto death."

He represented the
blue thread that holds our city together when disorder might pull it apart. He represented the public safety that is the
foundation of our democracy. He represented the
best of our values—as anyone can see by looking at you, and at your family. But
he was also your dad. A good man, who
tried hard, and sacrificed, and had a desire to serve.

When DHL closed one
employment door, that desire led him to a new door with our School Safety
Division—where he was assigned to the Rocco Laurie Intermediate School, named
for another officer slain with his partner, Gregory Foster, nearly 43 years
ago. Like Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu,
these officers were killed for their color—they were killed because they were
blue. And that desire to serve led him
to enter the Police Academy at 37 years of age.

Your mom said he'd
come home pretty tired, competing with all those younger recruits. But he passed with
flying colors, wearing the gold braid for being in the top of his class. No small feat.And that desire to serve led him to study to
be a chaplain.And I'm privileged to be
able to tell you that today I'm making him a Department chaplain—a posthumous
member of that family within our family, that ministers to us in time of need.

Rafael Ramos was
assassinated because he represented all of us. Even though, beneath the
uniform, he was just a good man. And he
was just your dad. And maybe that’s our
challenge. Maybe that’s the reason for
the struggle we’re now in—as a city, as a nation. Maybe it’s because we’ve all come to see only
we represent, instead of who we are. We
don’t see each other.

The police, the
people who are angry at the police, the people who support us but want us to be
better, even a madman who assassinated two men because all he could see was two
uniforms, even though they were so much more.
We don't see each other.

If we can…If we can
learn to see each other…to see that our cops are people like Rafael Ramos and
Wenjian Liu, to see that our communities are filled with people just like them
too. If we can learn to see each other,
then when we see each other, we'll heal. We'll heal as a Department. We'll heal as a city. We'll heal as a
country. But as Ecclesiastes teaches,
there is a time to every purpose under the Heavens.

Today, it is time for
us to mourn Rafael Ramos. Today, it is time for us to remember Rafael Ramos. And in a few days, we'll be here again, in a
different place that is the same, to celebrate the life of Officer Wenjian Liu. That will be a time for sadness, too. But someday the tears will end. The memories will not. We never have and we never will forget.

Last Sunday at Saint
Patrick's, Cardinal Dolan spoke to the police.
His cathedral thundered with prayer and he asked me to tell my officers
"we love them very much, we mourn with them, we need them, we respect them
and we're proud of them and we thank them." I'm proud of them, too. And prouder of none more than Police Officers
Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, both of whom I promote today to Detective First
Grade. Please let us rise
and applaud the lives of Detective First Grade Rafael Ramos and Detective First
Grade Wenjian Liu, so they can hear us in heaven.

Maritza, Justin,
Jayden, Julia, Sindy here we are today surrounded by a sea of blue. Our family
will always be with yours. We don't forget.We are here for you
and for this city.

God bless the New
York City Police Department.And God bless you and God bless
Rafael. In life he guarded the streets
of this city; in death, he guards the Heavenly Gates. Grant him rest. Grant his peace.

Friday, December 26, 2014

A wounded city is about to lay to
rest one of its finest on Saturday. The
other officer’s funeral awaits the arrival of his relatives from China. Some 20,000 to 25,000 police officers and law
enforcement officials from across the U.S. and Canada are expected to attend
the funerals of Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos.

For months we have witnessed the
disintegration of civil society stemming from the death of a young black man in
Missouri to the chokehold death of a black man selling loose cigarettes on the
streets of New York. In both cases, a
grand jury returned a “no true bill” of indictment against the officers
involved in those deaths.

During a press conference New
York’s mayor Bill de Blasio brought up his son, Dante, who is of mixed
race and implied that he was concerned that his son might be the victim of
police misconduct from the NYPD:

“I've said very, very
clearly in these last days, let's be clear this is not based on decades of
racism, this is based on centuries of racism.”

"So I've had to worry over the years. Chirlane's [de Blasio’s
wife] had to worry. Is Dante safe each
night? There are so many families in this city who feel that each and every
night. Is my child safe? And not just from some of the painful realities—crime
and violence in some of our neighborhoods—but is safe from the very people they
want to have faith in as their protectors.”

“We’ve had to literally train him, as families have all over this city
for decades, in how to take special care in any encounter he has with the
police officers who are there to protect him.”

The ravings of protesters spurred
on by racial huckster Al Sharpton and the incendiary remarks following the
grand jury announcement in the Eric Garner case saw two police lieutenants
attacked by a City University of New York adjunct professor and an organizer
for the Service Employees International Union on the Brooklyn Bridge.

de Blasio callously praised the
protesters even as some chanted, “What do we want? Dead cops!
When do we want it? Now!” The mayor said the attack was “an incident in
which a small group of protesters allegedly assaulted some members of the
NYPD.”

Someone at The New York Daily News offered a
powerful suggestion that the injudicious mayor “bring his teen son Dante to the
funerals of Ramos and Liu to witness firsthand the tragic human side of the
police experience. Let Dante meet Ramos’ teenage son. Have Dante greet the
shattered families, weeping cops mourning fallen brothers in blue. Let Dante
understand the unspoken fears of a son every time his dad puts on his blue
uniform and goes out to protect high-crime neighborhoods filled with kids who
look a lot like Dante.”

This is a suggestion that I
wholeheartedly admonish him to consider.
If Dante would exhibit even a fragment of character, he would tell the
world his dad was wrong to associate with Al Sharpton and he was wrong to tell
him to fear a civil society. His words
might sway those who have hardened their hearts and degraded the value of human
life and incited violence. He would know
that each killing, whether black or white, hastens the next killing.

A nervous child approaches a
homeless family in the hope that they will be pleased with the only thing he
has to offer: some simple music played
on his little drum.

It is a strange idea that this
event would be cause for celebration—we might even consider the scene to be
nothing short of pathetic. In its very simplicity and humility, "Little
Drummer Boy"—perhaps the most underrated of all Christmas songs—captures
the essence of what is so very revolutionary and compelling about the Christian
message.

We know well the setting of the
manger on Christmas night—most of us can instantly and fondly picture the
comforting scene of the loving family amongst the gentle animals and amazed
shepherds. In fact, the scene was much harsher than that: the family lived in poverty, they were
outcasts in their own society, they feared their government and they had no
shelter in which to give birth to their baby. So, in the cold of winter, found
themselves in a stable.

The plain-spoken Drummer Boy
calls our attention to the poverty of this situation as he addresses the infant
Christ, simultaneously asking permission to play his drum and apologizing for
the inadequacy of his gift. He not only
exhibits remarkable humility, but an inherent understanding of the very thing
that makes this infant "King" so very different than any that had
ever been imagined, and very much like all of us: "I am a poor boy
too."

Even as the song brings to mind
the simplicity of the scene on Christmas night, it also foreshadows much of
what will happen in the brief life of the infant Jesus. That baby, whom the
Drummer Boy identified with that night as another poor boy like him, would go
on to address the masses in the most important speech ever given, saying among
other things: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom
of Heaven". The mother who gave the Drummer Boy permission to play his
song, the mother in whose arms the infant rested, would some thirty-three years
later hold her child again, cradling the dead body of a man who had been
tortured and executed in the manner of a common criminal, challenges us to imagine
her clean and untouched infant again, rather than the destroyed body of the grown
man.

Every bit of the Christian story,
in the context of its time, was profoundly subversive. Poor boys were not to be
kings. Salvation was not to be found in death. Humility was not to be
celebrated. A world-devouring empire executed a minor nuisance that was meant
to be the end of the matter. Christ changed everything, broke every rule,
shattered every pretension.

In his own way the Drummer Boy
does something similar: he shows a different
and more moving way to give of ourselves, to do what we can, without pride or
worldly ambition: "I played my drum
for him, I played my best for him." His simple reward is fitting of the
humble scene: "Then He smiled at me."

So, on hearing "Little Drummer
Boy" each Christmas, we should be reminded that the very birth we are
celebrating is a call to poverty of the spirit. To be poor in spirit, as Christ
asked of us on the Mount of Beatitudes, is to admit our weaknesses, our
insecurities, our shortcomings. In recognizing these in ourselves, we are able
to feel compassion when we find them in others, and we are moved to act on
their behalf.

This is the best of Christmas and
the Christian message: to say, in the manner of a scared young boy before the
most unlikely of Kings, in the cold of an often harsh world, "I am a poor
boy too."

Sunday, December 21, 2014

My buddies Proof and Woodsterman have watched
their 49ers eliminate themselves from the playoff picture and the 5-8-1 Carolina
Panthers have played so horribly this season that their chances of going to the
playoffs is statistically weak despite their two-game winning streak.

The 6-8 Saints are sitting pretty
right now. If they beat the 5-9 Falcons
it’s over for Carolina. If the Saints
lose and the Panthers win there’s still a chance to make it to the playoffs,
but that’s a pretty tall order.

The Browns will start their
snot-nosed brat at QB and I had seriously given thought to buying a ticket on
the visitor’s side of Bank of America Stadium (there were still seats available
behind the Browns’ bench) expressly for the purpose of berating Manziel. I decided instead to yell at the TV from the
comfort of Casa de Curmudgeon at the little twerp. I hope the fans who are sitting near the
Browns’ bench give him hell. After all,
in the game where little Johnny was totally dominated in their 30-0 loss to
Cincinnati, the Bengals players mocked him with his own obnoxious “money sign”
after mercilessly sacking him and picking off his passes.

The latest reports from the
Panthers organization is that Cam Newton will start for the Panthers. I don’t like that decision. I’ve pushed playing back-up QB Derek Anderson
for a long time now. He ably
demonstrated he can lead the Panthers to victory. Anderson deserves to start against the team
that cut him after the 2009 season and because Newton did nothing during most
of the season to help his team have a winning season.

And because no football post
would be complete without some pom-poms, here’s a picture of a bevy of Top Cat
beauties.

Friday, December 19, 2014

CNN’s Brian Stelter reported
that Sony execs got a little something in their emails Thursday night. It seems the hackers who have whipsawed them
for about a month decided to take a victory lap:

"It's very wise that you
have made the decision to cancel the release of The Interview. It will be very useful for you. Now we want you
never [sic] let the movie released, distributed or leaked in any form of, for
instance, DVD or piracy. And we want everything related to the movie, including
its trailers, as well as its full version down from any website hosting
them immediately. We still have your private and sensitive data. We will ensure the security of your data
unless you make additional trouble."

How
humiliating it must be to surrender to a half-pint tin pot dictator of a hermit
state.

You humiriate
Grorious Reader no moor, okay?

UPDATE: And from the parody Twitter account comes this hilarious tweet:

Culture and Film Minister Roh Nam-Hon warns reactionary film studios of Japan and U.S. to increase respect for DPRK, or face obliteration.
— DPRK News Service (@DPRK_News) December 18, 2014

Fans of "Blazing Saddles" will remember Cleavon Little as the sheriff taking himself hostage. That was the impression that first came to my mind after hearing President Obama's plan to normalize relations with Communist Cuba.

But, did the President take himself hostage? Just his credibility (if there were any left!) Step into the Wayback Machine with me to 2009:

President Obama marked his 100th day in office Wednesday by holding a prime-time news conference from the White House. Obama said the Bush administration’s use of waterboarding was torture...

OBAMA: What I’ve said—and I will repeat—is that waterboarding violates our ideals and our values. I do believe that it is torture. I don’t think that’s just my opinion; that’s the opinion of many who’ve examined the topic. And that’s why I put an end to these practices.

At the very beginning of his presidency, Obama made known his erroneous and disparaging views on enhanced interrogation, falsely calling it torture, which has specific meaning and connotation around the planet, casting the "land of the free and the home of the brave" as being morally equivalent with nations that practice genuine torture.

There was much public debate about the subject in 2009. A number of reporters volunteered to be waterboarded, (more reporters were waterboarded than terrorists, it turns out!) The lines were drawn. The Left disparaged everything George W. Bush did, so there was no reasoning with them. The furor eventually died down and people were soon inundated with a barrage of scandals, economic malaise and foreign policy debacles unabated by a White House obsessed with celebrities and golf, with an occasional funeral selfie.

Suddenly, after five years of being a non-issue, the lamest of lame duck partisan Senate committees under Dianne Feinstein, felt compelled to revisit the issue. They had to act with alacrity, since in January, adults would take over in the US Senate and such partisan claptrap would never see the light of day.

And then, mirabile dictu, after bringing the issue back into the limelight and into the nation's consciousness once again, Barack Obama announces that despite all the hand wringing and faux outrage shown towards the US for enhanced interrogation techniques, that he would seek to normalize relations with a brutal dictatorship known for torturing and killing political prisoners.

Desperately in search of a legacy, Barack will not let the lack of a consistent and rational foreign policy on his part, or the utter hypocrisy of his positions, deter him from giving aid and assistance to our enemies and their allies.

I don’t watch any of the drivel on MSNBC simply
because I don’t want my world darkened by liberal hacks with Permanent Anger
Syndrome.

The network has a tiny audience,
but MSNBC’s The Ed Show has the lowest
ratings demo with a negligible 53,000 viewers. So why am I using my
bandwidth to write about this schlub who reminds you of every angry drunk you’ve
ever known?

Schultz, like the network that
employs him, engages in deceptive editing.
Examples can be seen here,
here,
here
and here. I’m sure there are scads of other examples,
but you get the idea.

While perusing the Intertoobs
yesterday, I came across a story
that mildly amused me only because I watched the game between the Dallas
Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles along
with 21.8 million others on Sunday. During the game, NBC’s cameras panned
over to the luxury corporate box where NJ Governor Chris Christie could be seen
high-fiving Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones.

Christie has come under fire for
being a long-time fan of the Cowboys much to the chagrin of New Jersey
residents who feel he should be rooting for the Eagles, Giants or Jets.

Mediaite
noticed that Schultz used a photo from one year ago that depicted the RNC Chairman
with Christie and Jones in Dallas not Philadelphia. Schultz, trying to be clever, said that his
show’s researchers “noticed what looks like RNC Chair Reince Priebus sitting
behind Christie and Jones. We reached
out to the RNC and they told us they thought he was at a dinner in Washington,
DC on Sunday night.”

So complete was their effort to
deceive that they added a “bug” on the screen that read SUNDAY NIGHT
PHILADELPHIA and then, for his mind-numbed viewers, circled Priebus’ face.

When the trickery of MSNBC and the host of The Ed Show was noticed by Sean Spicer, Communications Director for the Republican National Committee, he tweeted this:

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

PESHAWAR—Shahrukh
Khan, a 16-year-old schoolboy, was sitting with his classmates during a careers
guidance session at the Army Public School in Peshawar when gunmen wearing
paramilitary uniforms burst in and opened fire. He cowered under a bench
playing dead as filthy animals pumped bullets into the bodies of his fellow
students.

In the aftermath of the massacre
the children spoke of the horror they witnessed. One said, “I tried to get up but fell to the
ground because of my wounds. When I crawled to the next room, it was horrible.
I saw the dead body of our office assistant on fire. She was sitting on the
chair with blood dripping from her body as she burned.”

Another boy who spoke of his
dramatic escape as bullets flew past his head said, “I saw a few soldiers
trying to encircle a young man who was wearing a similar uniform to them. When
soldiers tried to approach him, there was a huge blast. The other guy was one
of the terrorists. This was such a horrible scene. For a few moments, I couldn't
understand what was going on. I saw his body parts flying in the air after the
blast. One of the soldiers was badly
injured.”

As she spoke it was blah, blah
this and blah, blah that followed by this amazingly naïve bit of dishonest
rhetoric:

“This is what we call smart
power: using every possible tool and partner to advance peace and security, and
leaving no one on the sidelines, showing respect, even for one’s enemies,
trying to understand and insofar as psychologically possible empathize with
their perspective and point of view—helping to define the problems, determine the
solutions, that is what we believe in the 21st Century will change. Change
the prospects for peace.”

Our shameful foreign policy does
not stem from our lack of empathy and damn you liberals to hell for saying it
does. Forgive my political
incorrectness, but the second rising of barbarians at the gate can be traced
directly to the inauguration of The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer.

I hope I do not live long enough
to witness another 9/11. May God have
mercy on us all.

Monday, December 15, 2014

Once again the filthy heresy of
Islam has been visited upon the world by a “self-styled” sheik named Man Haron
Monis. Born Manteghi Bourjerdi, the
49-year-old extremist left Iran for Australia in 1996 and adopted various names
before settling on Sheik Haron Monis. Already well-known to police, Monis was
out on bail until February of 2015 for more than 40 sexual offenses. A
profile of this animal notes that he claimed to be an expert specializing
in astrology, numerology, meditation and black magic.

Monis sent “grossly offensive”
hate letters to the families of Australian soldiers killed by insurgents in
Afghanistan and was last November accused of being an accessory to murder of
his ex-wife after her body was found badly burned with multiple stab wounds.

Thankfully, his demented life
came to an end after a gunfight lasting less than two minutes with Sydney
police.

Robert
Spencer describes the Sydney chocolate shop siege as a possible fulfillment
of the threat issued by Islamic State
spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani in a September video:

“If you can kill a disbelieving American or European—especially the
spiteful and filthy French—or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other
disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the
countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely
upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way however it may be."

“Do not ask for anyone’s advice and do not seek anyone’s verdict. Kill
the disbeliever whether he is civilian or military, for they have the same
ruling. Both of them are disbelievers. Both of them are considered to be waging
war [the civilian by belonging to a state waging war against the Muslims]. Both
of their blood and wealth is legal for you to destroy, for blood does not
become illegal or legal to spill by the clothes being worn.”

Spencer believes the “siege is a
harbinger of things to come not only in Australia, but in Western Europe,
Britain, Canada and the United States where we see “Islamic jihadists taking
hostages in the West as they have for so long in the Middle East, Africa and
Asia.”

Daniel
Greenfield reminds us, “Islam has a history of over a thousand years of
continuously dehumanizing non-Muslims and identifying peace and their
enslavement as one and the same. It is impossible to live in peace with Muslims
who think that there can be no peace as long as non-Muslims continue to live
independent lives.”

“In the Muslim worldview, war
happens because non-Muslims exist. War is caused by the infidel, the
disbeliever and the Muslim hypocrite who does not truly commit to the practice
of Islam. The Jihad purifies the world of non-Muslims; it eradicates the ‘moderate’
Muslims who have been compromised by Western culture. It is a war of extermination against the
un-Islamic.”

We are preached to by leaders
with scant knowledge of Muslim scripture that the Islamic State’s hateful
ideology has nothing to do with Islam.
They espouse the laughable notion that Islam is the religion of peace.

No, Islam is not the religion of peace. These sub-humans’ bloodthirsty interpretations
of their pedophile prophet’s scriptures are far too lethal.

Tom
Holland opines, “It is not enough to engage with the jihadis solely on the
battlefield. They must be defeated as well in mosques, and libraries, and
seminar rooms. This is a battle that, in the long run, can only be won by
theologians.”

He believes “fighters for the
Islamic State might well point out that the Qur’an describes angels
decapitating unbelievers with the aim of spreading terror; that the first
Muslims are described as harvesting heads on the battlefield of Badr; that
Muhammad himself is said to have owned a sword that can be translated as
‘Cleaver of Vertebrae’”.

“It is not enough, within such a
context, merely to insist that Islam is a religion of peace, and leave it at
that. Muslim scholars have an urgent responsibility to demonstrate in the most
painstaking detail exactly where and why the jihadis are wrong. Just as
Christian intellectuals, in the wake of the Holocaust, were obliged to confront
the evil purposes to which the New Testament had been put, and recalibrate
their understanding of it on a theological level, so do their Muslim
counterparts today need to redeem their own scriptures from the taint of
savagery that is doing so much to blacken the image of their religion.”

With the release of Dianne
Feinstein’s so called “torture report” just days ago, one must ask if it has already spawned other acts of violence such as the Sydney siege that may bring harm to Americans
abroad.

The bumbling Panthers take on the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Bank of America Stadium today. Kickoff is 1:00 PM ET. Fox
is carrying the game.

Panthers’ fans are ready for this
season to be over. The NFC South
Division is the home of the suckiest teams in the league.
The Falcons and the Saints are both 5 and 8. The Panthers at 4-8-1 are only slightly
better than the 2-11 Buccaneers.

With the arrogant Newton sidelined
with two transverse process fractures in his lower back due to a vehicle crash
earlier in the week, fans finally get to see backup QB Derek Anderson take the
reins.

The Panthers have been, to say
the least, disappointing this year. I
blame Coach Ron Rivera and QB Cam Newton.
Rivera refused to play 9-year veteran Derek Anderson when it became
clear early in the season that Newton was experiencing delusions of grandeur.

Anderson had a great game against
the Bucs in Week 1 completing 24 of 34 passes for 230 yards and two TDs. I’ve been begging the Panthers organization
to bench Newton and play Anderson instead.
He’s proven himself capable of winning and he’s not narcissistic.

And because no football post would be complete without
pom-poms, here’s a photo of Top Cat Whitney.
Have a great Sunday.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

On Friday, Twitchy
erupted in a call to fire John Boehner and draft SC Republican Trey Gowdy as
Speaker of the House. As of this posting
there are 2,396 signatures on the website Petition2Congress
to remove Boehner and replace him with the fierce Gowdy.

Conservatives are angry at
Boehner for playing footsie with Democrats and spearheading the passage of the
$1.1 trillion CRomnibus bill—a complicated 1600-page bill designed to prevent
another government shutdown. The bill passed by a relatively narrow
margin, 219-206. Only 67 House Republicans voted no. Boehner wasn’t one of them.

Conservative Roman Catholic
theology says animals cannot go to heaven because they have no souls, but Pope
Francis appears to have kindled a new debate on whether there is a place for
them in the afterlife.

The Humane Society of the United
States says it has been flooded with e-mails. If Francis does, in fact, believe
animals have souls, "Then we ought to seriously consider how we treat them. We have to admit that these are sentient
beings, and they mean something to God," said Christine Gutleben, Senior
Director of Faith Outreach for that organization.

I have owned many dogs in my
life. I remember years ago when my
little Pekingese “Chubby” passed away it took me three years before I welcomed
another dog into my life.

My best friend emailed me to say
that someone she worked with had a dog that needed to be adopted. The dog belonged to an elderly man who was
having difficulty taking care of her.
Attached to the email were three pictures of her. My friend was concerned that she might be intruding,
but knew that I needed someone to polish the rust from my heart.

I contacted the person and made
an appointment to come and see the dog.
When I arrived at his home the man said the dog had belonged to his
father. He led me to the back door where
I saw a fluffy dog with feet as big as plates and a face to die for. It was love at first sight. The man said “Duchess” was ten years
old. I said I didn’t care. I wanted to take “Duchess” home. He gave me her leash, a bag of dog food and
all her papers. He refused to take any
money for her.

“Duchess” was part of my life for
four years. I came home one night after
work to find her in the bathroom. She
seemed disoriented. I managed to help her get her bearings and let her out to do what dogs do.

When she did not come to the door
to come back in, I went outside to look for her. I called her name and she came. I opened the door for her come in but she had
great difficulty climbing the three steps so I helped her up.

I gave her some fresh water and
put down her food. She ate and drank a
little and laid down next to me on the floor.
I fell asleep on the couch only to be awakened by her barking in the
bedroom. I went to her and found her
walking around in circles.

I was frightened and called the
emergency animal hospital to let them know I was on my way. After I hung up the phone, I knew in my heart
that she was dying. I immediately called
a veterinarian who made house calls. I
didn’t want her to be frightened by being placed on a cold metal table facing a
stranger in her final moments of life.

While I waited, I laid on the
floor with her stoking her fluffy fur and telling her repeatedly that I loved
her. The look in her eyes is something I
will never forget. She was trusting me
to help her.

When the vet arrived about two
hours later, he examined her and gave me the devastating news that she was full
of tumors.

I asked if he could put her to
sleep. Answering “yes”, he went to his
car and returned with two needles. One
to make her go to sleep and the other to stop her heart. As he gave her the first injection, I placed
her head in my hand and gave her a kiss.
Then came the second injection.
Within moments my pal was gone.

As I write this, memories come
flooding back. I was inconsolable and
somewhere I read a quote that comforted me.
“Gone to fetch the stick that God has thrown; to wag her tail forever
and hear the loving words: Good
dog. Good dog.”

Friar
Jack Wintz believes from the Garden of Eden, to Noah and the Ark there is
evidence of God’s fatherly care for his creatures. "Our God is a God of overflowing love,
goodness, and beauty who is ready to give over everything to those he loves.
Surely the Creator would not suddenly stop loving and caring for the creatures
he had put into existence with so much care!"